Serene

I SMILED AT HIS WORDS. I couldn’t agree more. Still, as much as Jeffrey had blown my mind just now, a tiny part of me was disappointed that there had been no power play this time like in Aspen.

“You know, I was hoping for a bit of...” I started

“That’s just a taste of what’s to come,” he said at the same time.

“What do you mean?” I asked as I looked up from the hollow of his shoulder.

“What do you mean?” he countered.

“Nope, I asked first.”

He smirked at me but relented. “I meant that there was so much more I wanted to do with you, do to you but you were just too irresistible.” He squeezed me close. “I just had to have you.”

“Mmm. You’d better be careful, Mr. Webb. Sweet talk like that might make me thirsty for round two.”

Jeffrey grabbed me and pulled me on top of him. I looked down at him, amused that he could pull me into a straddle so easily. “And what if that’s exactly what I want, Ms.... hmmm. I don’t actually know your last name.”

I sighed looking down the long line of Jeffrey’s chest. I knew he didn’t. Most people didn’t. I didn’t even have a name plate on my desk. But I’d kept my secret long enough. It was time to let go and let someone else in. I met his gaze, that penetrating, gorgeous gaze and told him what I hadn’t said out loud in almost five years. “When I said my father was the British version of Bill Gates, that wasn’t entirely accurate.”

“Alright. Enlighten me,” Jeffrey said with a smile.

“Well, my father is very wealthy but not because he earned it.”

“Oooooh, is your father a mobster? A British crime lord, right? Hang on, do you have crime lords in the U.K.?”

“No!” I shrieked with laughter at the idiotic picture forming in my head. “Heavens no.”

“Well, you said he didn’t earn it.”

“I did but it’s not because he’s a criminal. He’s part of the aristocracy. My father is cousin to the Queen. Which makes me a tiny bit royal. My name is Serene Stafford but my title is Duchess Serene of Somerset.”

My body clenched as I watched him digest the information. I didn’t know what to expect but I knew what I hoped. I hoped it didn’t matter to him. I hoped he’d be accepting of it and still want to pursue a relationship. I hoped...

He reached up and brushed my face. “You look so worried,” he said with a smile. “What could a Duchess possibly have to worry about?”

“That it’s too much for you and you want no parts of the aristocracy and, by extension, me.”

Fire flashed in Jeffrey’s eyes and before I knew it, he’d flipped us over. I stared up at his beautiful, piercing eyes as he hovered over me and stroked my face. “Serene, the moment I saw you, you brought a ray of light in my darkened world. You made me remember the promises I made to Natasha, and you unknowingly helped me keep all of them. I told you she made me promise to keep trying new things but she also asked me to keep traveling. Aspen was the first trip I took since I lost her. And skiing, well, you saw how awful I was at that. Skiing was my new thing this year and it was miles out of my comfort zone.” Jeffrey took a big breath and kissed my forehead before continuing. “And the last thing I promised was that I’d be open to finding love again.” He smiled at me, a warm, gentle smile that made me feel like the most treasured thing in the world. “I’m not giving you up for anything. Not even the Queen of England.”

He leaned down and kissed me. A soft, sweet kiss that slowly built into a hungry and hard kiss. I was panting and moaning into his mouth before long. Jeffrey slid his hands up my sides to my arms before pulling them up and pinning them over my head. I squirmed beneath him. Not because I wanted out but because I liked it so much.

Jeffrey beamed down at me. “You like this, huh.”

“Very much,” I managed to whisper through the thick haze of desire fogging up my brain. “This is what I was waiting for.”

His eyes flashed a devilish fire before he broke into a wide, gorgeous grin. “So sorry to keep the Duchess waiting.”

I made a face, that didn’t sound quite right.

“Your Grace?”

I shook my head. Still not right.

“My Lady?”

There it was. Hearing Jeffrey call me that, in this setting, sent a shiver rocketing through me end to end. It wasn’t correct. Technically, Your Grace was the proper way to address me but that sounded stodgy and decidedly unsexy.

However, the combination of the words my lady and the unbelievable dirty way he said them, was like the floodgates to my libido. I was instantly hot, ready, and wanting to fuck again. “I want you to show me,” I said breathlessly.

“Show you what?” Jeffrey asked.

“Everything,” I said.

He grinned at me, kissed the end of my nose and said, “I’ll be right back.” Moments later he returned with what looked like a rolling steamer trunk. Rummaging through its contents he pulled out a few things, careful to keep them from my view and hopped back on the bed. “Most of the things I have in there are novelty-ish. Blindfolds and gags that wouldn’t work for you because I want to see that gorgeous face when I make you come. But I did find a few things I think we can have fun with. May I have your wrist, my lady?”

I presented my wrist and Jeffrey tucked it into a thick leather cuff.

“And the other one, please,” he said, voice going darker and craggy with lust. When the other was cuffed he linked them together with a chain and hooked the chain to a part of the bed I couldn’t see. When he’d done the same to my ankles, he took a long look at me starfished across his bed. “Are you comfortable, my lady?”

I nodded and Jeffrey pulled a long ostrich feather from behind his back, floating it just over my skin.

“Most people think this lifestyle is all about the gadgets and toys and I can understand that. But it’s really about the dynamic between the people involved. Balancing anticipation,” he said, circling the feather over my nipples. “and gratification.” He smirked bringing the feather a hair’s breadth from contact, then moving it away. My back bowed, arching to try and relieve the tension he built. Jeffrey just smiled and continued teasing. “Eventually, I’ll be able to get you so turned on you’ll be able to come with a look.”

“Really?” I asked as I trembled in the shackles, wanting so much to be touched.

“Really.”

I pulled my lip between my teeth as I looked into his gorgeous eyes. “Why not now?”

Jeffrey chuckled softly. “You’re not ready for that yet, my lady. Don’t worry,” he said when my brow creased. “You will be soon. Just not yet.” He let the feather graze my skin and I shuddered as he traced down my torso. Eyes closing and skin prickling into gooseflesh, I sighed as Jeffrey traced down my stomach, across my hips and finally circled over my mound. “Lie still for me, my lady,” he purred in my ear as he stroked his way between my outer lips with a single finger.

I couldn’t help arching into the sensation, moaning as he finally touched me.

“Uhuh, you need to be still for me,” he said, pressing my pelvis back down to the bed while he stroked and flicked at my clit.

I whimpered beneath him. I didn’t know if I could be still. “You touch me so... I—I don’t think I can.”

“Lie still, Serene or the fun is over.”

I took a deep breath and tried to relax all the muscles that wanted to tighten and quake. “There, that’s better,” he purred and slid a finger into me. He knew exactly what to do with that finger, finding the perfect angle, pressure, and rhythm to work as he rubbed lightly across my aching clit. “Now, listen carefully. I’m going to get you off and you’re not to move or make a sound, is that understood?”

“I can’t make any noise?” I asked, panting as my question turned into a groan of pleasure.

“Not a peep,” he smirked.

I tucked my quivering lip between my teeth and hoped I could do what he asked. Jeffrey added a second finger inside me and the waves of pleasure and tension loomed so close I knew it would only be moments. Then, like in Aspen, he stroked my ass a few times before just barely pressing his thumb in.

It took everything I had not to scream and thrash around as he expertly teetered me on the brink of a devastating orgasm. I wanted to buck and flail and moan beneath him. But I also wanted to please him by obeying.

“Come for me, my lady,” Jeffrey whispered gruffly in my ear.

I tightened around him and came harder than I ever had in my life. Wave after wave of explosive, divine ecstasy crashed into me over and over and I lied still, lips pressed together and brow furrowed so I wouldn’t accidentally cry out.

God, I wanted to. I wanted to scream at the ceiling and grid myself against Jeffrey’s hand, riding my pleasure until it was over. But somehow, not doing any of that made the climax that much greater. It was like screaming and bucking let some of it escape and being still kept it all where it should be.

When I finally opened my eyes, Jeffrey hovered above, beaming at me. “I’ve never been with anyone who could do that their first time.”

I kissed his smiling lips. “I”m a quick study,” I said.